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SAN FRANCISCO Ė The baseball postseason is made for snap judgments. Every game means more because, even if youíre good, you get only five or seven of them. The games run together, all televised nationally, one after another after another for three weeks, an endless opportunity to second guess. Which makes Dusty Bakerís sublime tap-dance Saturday night all the more memorable.

He had less than a minute to decide what to do. Do we all understand that?

Johnny Cueto went from ace to zero in one pitch. It wasnít a seventh-inning pitch. He didnít depart with a 2-1 lead and a runner on second. That would have been unfortunate, but not disastrous. There are established contingency plans for the seventh inning. There are none, not one, for one out in the first inning. Cueto left after eight pitches.

Suddenly, he is walking off the back of the mound. He is throwing his arms in the air in abject disgust. Dusty Baker lopes out, hands in pockets. with only a hint of what he might find. Cueto had felt something ominous warming up. Beyond that, Baker has no idea. He has to prepare for everything and nothing, in the most critical game of the season, and he has to do it in 60 seconds or less.

And he nails it.

Occasionally, in this age of instant and overheated analysis, some of us are guilty of believing we know more than we know. Death by SABRE-metrics isnít uncommon. We forget that the title is ďmanageríí. Not button-pusher, computer sage or numbers pounder. Manager, as in people manager. Baker is pretty accomplished at that. Itís part of the reason the emergency decisions he made Saturday worked out.

Baker is good at knowing what moves people, and what does not. What gets their best effort. He knows that Sam LeCure doesnít get riled. ďThatís one of the reasons Iím on this roster,íí LeCure said after the game. ďIíve been good about not being overwhelmed by a situation. Dusty knows that.íí

Baker knows Mat Latos is confident bordering on cocky, and that his arm doesnít ache between starts. This is what matters most. Not where Drew Stubbs hits in the lineup. Not if he plays center field, ahead of Chris Heisey.

It wasnít just Saturday night that Baker was on top of the game, and his game. The Reds went 33-16 without Joey Votto, partly because the manager set a tone both confident and relaxed. As pitching coach Bryan Price said, ďWe worked too hard to get this opportunity to start thinking one tough break is going to end our season. I donít think anybody thought that.íí Why should they? Compared to losing Votto for 49 games, losing Cueto for one was a broken finger nail.

Itís time to give the Dusty-sniping some down time. Itís starting to make us look silly.

The lineup thing. The plays-veterans thing. Most egregiously and incorrectly, the ruins-young-arms thing. All that stuff is either overstated or entirely wrong.

Baker got lots of credit while managing the Giants. The fans at AT&T Park gave him a loud ovation when he was introduced before Saturdayís game. They recall him fondly, even as his Giants did not win the World Series. He is a local guy. His personality meshes with the NoCal vibe.

Baker remains scapegoated on the North Side of Chicago, but opinions of Cubs fans are easily discarded. I mean, theyíre Cubs fans.

Why Baker has not been more embraced in Cincinnati is strange. Heís personable. Heís respectful of his players. He has managed the Reds to their best seasons since the Pete Rose-Lou Piniella days.

And yet. . .

They win for the 98th time, and fans still want to know why he keeps Stubbs in the lineup.

We have a hard time enjoying ourselves around here.

On Saturday, LeCure could have gotten LeCreamed, of course. Latos could have been overgeeked and walked half the Giants lineup. Managers rarely rise much above their material. Point is, Dusty Baker was very, very good, on a night when anything less might have been disastrous.